Wishes

If God came down on earth, appeared before me and gave me one Wish.. (Now why would he do that? Honestly, I don’t know.. but humor me and imagine along), I would be mighty confused.. more confused than I was at any point in my life. I am pretty much confused all the time. So that says a lot .

But on deeper thought, I would say this - I want the future of all the people I love to be secured – financially, emotionally.

I have many fears. First among them, fear of darkness. I still haven’t spent a night at a home all by myself. Thankfully, when I went to US, I had an apartment-mate.

Fear of tire puncture – When I am driving, I fear if the tire has been punctured. I sometimes stop in the middle of my journey and check if the back wheel has sufficient air. Once when I was in school, I was driving back in my Kinetic Honda from tuition classes in main road, when suddenly the back wheel did a dance that would put Shakira to shame. Thankfully, I wasn’t speeding and had the sense to go to the corner of the road and stop to realize that the tire was flat. Phew!

And the most predominant fear – fear of poverty. I have no reason to fear. I am educated, hard-working. But still it is a fear in the back side of my mind. I see all these poor people on the roads and shiver at the prospect of being like them. Of course, I pity them. That is the only reason I hand out change to the beggars. Agreed, I have done nothing to help them. The only thing I do is not bargain. I buy things from the small shops, pavement sellers at the rate they quote, I don’t bargain with auto drivers. Basically I don’t bargain. I know inflation hits everyone. And this is all that I am willing to do. I am certainly not on the way to becoming a Saint. I am still an ordinary girl who dreams of branded bags seen on fashion blogs. I could afford one, may be. But there’s no way I am putting my money on those. Rs.500 on a handbag any day for me. Not a paisa more!

So that is the explanation for my wish. My one wish!

But if I could have two wishes, the second would be this – I want to travel around the world!

Some people are so content at home. I am always amazed by that. They have spent all their lives in just one place. They need not wallow in self-pity. But they have no desire to travel at all and that is what amazes me. Well, to each his own. But I have this desire to travel, to see many places, to experience different cuisines, different cultures,meet different people…Sigh!

In India, I have only been to Kerala and Maharashtra. And I have travelled just once outside India to US. And while I was in US, I didn’t step out of Minnesota. In fact, I didn’t step out of Woodbury/Minneapolis/St.Paul. One of my colleagues made a trip to New York while we were there. But me, I was busy saving Dollars and doing mathematics to convert it into Rupees, so I could come back and contribute to home loan. Sigh! I could have travelled. But I didn’t get the heart to do it. I mean, here I was, away from family, away from child. I should make it useful. So I walked and lost some weight and (not related to walking!)saved some money from the daily allowance that I got. But I had fun nevertheless. I tasted most of the vegetarian cuisine that the place I stayed in had to offer. I travelled to the MN State Fair, alone! I had fun and the travel enthusiast in me was awoken like never before.

In India, I want to see the Taj Mahal.  And I want to see snow. I have never seen snow. So yes, if God can take care of wish 1, I am all set for wish 2. I would pack up in no time!